MARCH 2004 and APRIL 2004

March 01, 2004

In September 2003 we mounted the exhibition "Japanese Ceramics, 1600-1800," which featured exceptional ceramics from the Momoyama period. An Oribe tebachi (handled bowl) recently deaccessioned by the Manno Art Museum, Osaka (see our March 2003 exhibit, catalogue 7), a Nezumi-Shino dish with a design of autumn grasses from the same source, and a Shino kashibachi (cake dish) decorated with birds in flight and bird-catching nets were three highlights of the show.

We were pleased to announce the opening of our gallery at its new premises. In winter 2003 we moved across Madison Avenue to the third floor of a building located at 17 East 76th Street. This historic building, in the heart of the Upper East Side landmark preservation district, was erected in 1898 and was once known as Piscator House, after Mr. Erwin Piscator (1893-1966) whose residence it was in the 1940s and early 1950s. Piscator, a German by birth, was one of the leading theatrical directors and playwrights in Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. After World War II he came to New York, where he served as director of the New School for Social Research's Dramatic Workshop, numbering Marlon Brando and James Dean among his students.

With our new address came a new associate. Geoffrey Dunn is a San Franciscan who found himself becoming increasingly interested in Asian, especially Japanese, art while practicing as an attorney in California. He had now chosen a different career path, leading him to Sebastian Izzard Asian Art. We are delighted he has joined our team.

Our spring 2004 exhibition, "Japanese Ink Paintings, 1300-1700," inaugurated our new gallery space. The exhibit took place March 23-30 during New York's Asia Week, and a fully illustrated catalogue is available.

Medieval Japanese ink paintings have long been highly regarded in Japan, but interest in them in the United States outside museums has, for the most part, been restricted to a few knowledgeable private collectors. It was therefore a great pleasure to be able to introduce an important group of these paintings to a wider audience. The selection included a rare portrait of the White-Robed Kannon by one of the earliest Japanese pilgrim painters, Mokuan Reien; two works by Yamada Doan I, one of them a pair of hanging scrolls; and three by Sesson Shukei, one of them a triptych. The exhibit opened with a brilliant decorative screen of a bridge and willows painted by an unknown artist around 1600, and closes with three ink paintings by the Rinpa School artists Tawaraya Sotatsu and Ogata Korin.

For further information, please visit the Exhibitions section of our website.

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